


#1 Crush

by badjanet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Curtis POV, Curtis has a notebook, Keith has a crush, M/M, Pining, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Shiro is a good sport, Stalking, Tiger Beat Shiro, background Sheith - Freeform, canon-compliant maybe (who can tell), there's pining and then there's whatever this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 16:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17227634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badjanet/pseuds/badjanet
Summary: Being the star of the Galaxy Garrison isn't just about exploring space and shaping young minds. Sometimes, it's all about the public relations, even if the quality of the journalism is shaky at best. Shiro gains an admirer whose dedication cannot be questioned.Or, Shiro does an interview with Tiger Beat and his impossible politeness attracts a future husband with a concerning attention to detail.





	#1 Crush

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to Curtis for this light piece of character assassination, maybe you're a good dude, but it's not like anyone can tell. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 

The Galaxy Garrison recruitment blitz seems sensible enough. They're travelling further into space than ever, and Shiro is breaking new records all the time. He's delighted and flattered when he's asked to take some time to travel to high schools to talk to students about the cadet program, and try to source raw, emerging talent.

 

He's less excited about the public relations campaign. He's got all of the Garrison talking points down, and he can never say enough on what he loves about flying. But talking about himself has never come easy to Shiro. He's not that interesting. And some of the questions are a little strange. Nevertheless, Shiro squares his broad shoulders and carries on. The classroom recruitment campaign is how he'd met Keith, and convinced him he had it what it takes to be become a pilot when no one else would have. He was changing lives.

 

This week, Shiro lets himself sleep in later than he normally would on a Saturday, but it's been a week of especially endless meetings, trainings, and consultations. He finds his way to the bathroom to wash his face. When he looks up in the mirror, there's his face, and then there's his face, peering dramatically over his own shoulder. 

 

"GALAXY GARRISON," the poster reads. "TOUCH THE STARS."

 

Adam leans his head in with a delighted look on his face. He's most likely been standing there for hours lest he miss this moment. Shiro suddenly doesn't feel bad about getting up late. "I swear there were more people involved when they took that photo." He shakes his head. "And I don't really look like that."

 

"I think it's beautiful," Adam says, with a over-dramatic, dreamy sigh. "You look like Captain America." Shiro raises an eyebrow. The reference is lost on him. Adam is far from being done and waves his tablet in the air. "You know, it's an old movie. The kind that, according to GoLion Beat!, Takashi Shirogane likes watching on a first date, before you go walking on the beach." He looks back to the tablet again like he's reading to himself, a loving and bemused expression on his face. "Which, for the record, we don't have a lot of here. In the desert. Is that why you've never taken me?"

 

Shiro takes the teasing in good humor and laughs with a shrug. "I had no idea what to say. I was totally unprepared for that line of questioning. Being a hero has untold challenges and battles."

Adam takes him by the hand and leads him into the kitchen. "Come on," he says. "We'll need to be prepared in case you meet such an enemy again."

  
  


Several cups of coffee later, Adam is tapping his temple thoughtfully. This was harder than they both expected. "Takashi," he says with a gentle exasperation. "I know there are more things in this life that you like besides space, flying, and flying in space."

 

"I like you," Shiro says, trying to be as charming as possible before leaning in to plant a kiss on him. He waves his hand. "Anyway, these questions are pointless. How does it help the future of space travel to know what my ideal date night looks like?" He still tries to formulate an image, however, but is not getting far. Then he feels a little guilty. "Adam, do we even do date night?"

 

"We do," Adam smiles. "We both get home late. Then we declare we're going to try something different and spend thirty minutes looking at take-out menus before getting the same thing we get every time. We try to find a movie, but you get distracted by telling me about the new AI Matt has re-engineered to do something no one would ever ask for, like take all the pieces of cereal out of a box individually, or what Keith said about Iverson that was actually pretty funny but you did your best not to laugh at. We get halfway through a movie and both fall asleep, then you wake me with your snoring, and I have to figure out how to get this mighty oak tree that serves as your body into bed. It's very romantic."

 

It kind of is romantic, Shiro thinks, in the way they've settled into quiet domesticity as a couple. Love doesn't always have to be hot and urgent and desperate. It can be enough. "Well," he says, "sounds like that's my ideal date night."

 

Adam's turn is up to run drills with the cadets in detention this weekend, so Shiro has most of the day to himself to catch up on paperwork and his own reading. There's still so much in the air about the mission to Kerberos, but he's getting himself ready by reviewing the proposal and diagnostics Sam has included in the package. He wants to know everything, back to front, sideways, in his sleep. No room for mistakes. He does get a non-mission related message from Matt.

 

Dear Shiro: thanks to my sister Katie, today I was given an intimate glimpse into your life, which proves my thesis that you are a afternoon children's special cartoon and my research is sound. Thank you for your contributions to science.

 

A few hours later, there's a knock at the front door. The knock is so fast and forceful that Keith never needs to announce himself, but always does anyway. "Shiro? It's Keith. It's important." 

 

Suddenly, Shiro's in panic mode. Keith wasn't supposed to be in detention this weekend, as far as he knew. Had something happened? Was he in trouble? If Keith was coming straight here and Shiro wasn't being called to Iverson's office, was it something worse? He leaps over the couch to get to the door and opens it in record time. Keith has wicked grin on his face. "Shiro, if I knew you were so into tabletop roleplaying games, I could have started making fun of you  _ much  _ earlier."

 

"Go away," Shiro says, though of course he doesn't mean it. Keith knows and pushes past him into the apartment.

 

"No. I need some answers about why you feel the animal you identify most with is a giraffe."

"Don't you have homework you could be doing, cadet?" Shiro knows he's not exactly pulling rank, because it never really works on Keith, anway.

 

"But I'm learning," he's still grinning. "I learned that I, too, want to be an officer in the Galaxy Garrison so I might get the opportunity to mentor and guide the bright young talent of the future." He scoffs. "You're so corny, Shiro."

 

He knows this is Keith's way of trying to say he knew exactly who Shiro was talking about and it means a lot to him. There's a flash of something in Keith's eyes, and then he looks away and shrugs off his bag. "Actually, I do have homework, and I kind of need your help with it."

 

They're still working in the kitchen when Adam arrives home. "Takashi," he says, greeting him with a gentle kiss. "Hi, there, Keith."

 

Keith doesn't look up from his tablet, but his "Hey, Adam," is casual and friendly.

 

"How is homework going?" Adam asks. "Have you gotten to the 'Math is stupid and I don't need it in space'/'But math is in everything' part yet?" Shiro takes a moment to stretch and shakes his head.

 

"Not yet, but we'll get there."

 

"By the way, Shiro," Adam begins. He's about to make a joke, but there's something in his tone. "This is also what date night frequently ends up looking like."

 

Later, when things fall apart, Shiro will realize that there were many times Adam tried to tell him he was hurt by Shiro putting literally everything else before their relationship, because Shiro wanted to be everything to everyone all the time with every fiber of his being. He doesn't pick it up this time.

 

Keith, however, clocks it immediately, and starts gathering his things. "Actually, I think I've got it now. Thanks, Shiro." He smiles at Adam. "Nice to see you." As he heads out the door he turns back to Shiro. "Bye, Shiro. If I see any dwarves or whatever, I'll let them know you have a quest for them."

  
  


Monday comes, and it seems like GoLion Beat! has somehow become the most widely read publication in all of the Garrison, and everyone wants to make absolutely sure Shiro is aware of this fact. The gentle teasing from his boyfriend and best friends was fine. But then Admiral Sanda felt the need to share that she, too, would like to have dinner with founders of the Mars Colony, more than anyone else in history. She probably wasn't joking, because she probably didn't know how to joke, but this was getting out of control.

Later in the week, Shiro is wrapping up a post-mission simulator review and asks the class if they have any questions. A frantic arm shoots up and starts waving in the middle of the room. Attached to that arm a decent kid who hasn't quite yet managed to channel his seemingly boundless enthusiasm into skill. "Yes, Lance?"

 

"I just wanted to say, Mister Shirogane, that I read your interview and I thought it was great! Imagine being on the cover of a big magazine like that!" Lance practically has stars in his eyes.

 

"I liked it, too!" The cadet next to Lance is nodding vigorously. Shiro's pretty sure his name is Hunk and briefly feels bad he doesn't know him better. He's definitely more on the engineering track. Shiro should try to spend more time with the cadets across disciplines. "I liked that they asked you a lot of questions about food. People don't understand that you can learn a lot about someone by asking what kind of food they'd like to be. Me?" He points to himself with both thumbs. "Burrito, all the way. No question. Beloved and full of mysteries."

 

"Thanks, guys, I-" He's starting to wonder how obvious the discomfort is showing on his face, when James Griffin, who never met an opportunity to flatter a superior that he didn't like, pipes up from the front row.

 

"Well,  _ Officer  _ Shirogane, I appreciate everything you've had to say about how great it is to be part of the Galaxy Garrison. Your words are inspiring."

 

Shiro can practically hear Keith rolling his eyes in the back of the room. 

 

As they're dismissed and file out of the simulator bay, Keith lags slightly behind, and addresses Shiro with the most haughty tone he can manage. "Thanks so much for your insight, _ Officer Shirogane _ ." He rolls his eyes again.

 

"You know," Shiro says, "it would be a real shame if that face of yours ended up getting stuck like that."

 

"Shut up." Keith lowers his head and walks out as quickly as he can, so Shiro can't see what his face is actually doing.

 

\--------------

 

Everyone knew who Takashi Shirogane was. He was a young, handsome legend in his own time. Which is why it was so surprising that, when Shiro grabbed his hand to shake it at the briefing, Shiro knew his name. "Curtis, right? I've seen you in Records."

 

Curtis knew how work colleagues were, especially at big operations like the Garrison. There were plenty of people he worked with and even spoke to everyday whose names he didn't know. Curtis worked in Transmissions and Records, and therefore saw a lot of faces and a lot of information, but it never occurred to him that Takashi Shirogane might have remembered his name.

 

"Yeah, Curtis," he remembers to reply. "It's a pleasure, Officer Shirogane."

 

Shiro holds up his hands. "That's for the cadets and the brass. Everyone else calls me Shiro." His smile is impossibly warm and friendly. Does he make everyone feel like this when he talks to them? Like they're the only person in the room? Curtis needs to find a way to make this conversation longer.

 

"You know, that Winston Churchill quote is one of my favorites, too." Curtis thought had read about it a few months ago in Shiro's interview with  _ GoLion Beat! _ Shiro looks confused, like he doesn't know what Curtis is talking about, but is too polite to say so.

 

"Ahh, sure, yeah. That's great stuff."

 

_ Shit _ , Curtis thinks. He was sure his source for that was solid. He was going to need a notebook.

 

 

It's not really a notebook, actually. It's a complex collection of data with many paths and directories. But calling it the notebook was cute and fun, right? Curtis loved giving things cute and fun names. He also loved rigorously collecting information. It was one of the things that made him good at his job, which meant he had a lot of responsibility, and a lot of access. 

 

This first step, obviously, is getting all the information on Shiro he can. The information in his personnel file isn't surprising. Model student as a cadet. The youngest pilot to ever to lead a mission into space. The broke the record for the fastest orbital velocity by 50 kilometers. No family locally, but strangely, not much more information about it. How lonely. There's an intriguing classified section of medical records that are well locked down, and after a few efforts, Curtis makes a note to move on and come back to it sometime.

 

Surveillance is strong word for the next step. Information-gathering is just as accurate. Curtis spends an entirely reasonable amount of time observing where Shrio goes and who he spends his time with. It's important in any relationship to get a sense of your partner's hobbies and try to make a connection with their friends. Shiro seems to have surprisingly few close friends given how popular he is. Curtis narrows it down to three, and starts a new directory called "THREATS." Well, maybe that name seems a little too fun. Might come across as too much if you didn't know it was a joke. He changes the directory name to "COMPETITION."

 

The biggest concern is that Shiro seems to have a boyfriend. Curtis feels a little disappointed in himself for not realizing. After all, Shiro's emergency contact's address is the same as his own, which should have tipped off that he has a significant other. His name is Adam, and after enough time in the badge database looking under last names starting with W, Curtis is able to figure out his full name. Also a model student as a cadet. Also a pilot, though a close-range fighter pilot who doesn't see a lot of action during peacetime, and doesn't go far from Earth. Too bad. Reasonably attractive, Curtis figured, if you were into that kind of look. Curtis could tell he was going to spend a lot of time thinking about the two of them. He'd already noticed one time when it looked like Shiro and Adam were trying to decide between restaurants to grab lunch at and Shiro looked disappointed with the outcome. Rude.

 

The next person was Matt Holt. Matt was one of the engineers Shiro would be taking on the mission to Kerberos along with his father Sam, if it ended up happening. He and Shiro appeared to spend a lot of time in the lab, but would occasionally go out for drinks after work. Matt seemed to be more into ogling robots than Shiro. Their rapport seemed adequately platonic. Curtis marked this as bro territory and considered moving Matt's information to the "MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS" directory.

 

This last one was Keith Kogane, and really, him? To say the cadet had a problem with authority was a gross understatement. He was apparently a gifted pilot but his list of write-ups was so long Curtis got bored reading them. They almost all involved punching people or uncooperative pieces of technology. The worst news was that it was well-known that the only reason he was still in the Garrison was that Shiro was so fond of him. The best news was that he had a mullet. Curtis considered this one threat level - low, but something to keep an eye on.

 

Curtis spends the next few months attentively crafting his notebook. Shiro's profile grows as he's announced as the captain for the Kerberos mission, and information is everywhere. Lots of media coverage to learn from, though, sadly, no more features in  _ GoLion Beat! _ Curtis is sure he's perfectly crafted the showstopper that will win the captain's heart in one conversation. But then Curtis misses the last opportunity he has to get Shiro alone, and Shiro's gone off to space. 

  
  


 

And then t here's a tragedy and Shiro's gone forever. Pilot error. Curtis, of course, having studied Shiro's flight records and the details of the path to Kerberos, knows this is impossible. It must have been something with the mission. Something went wrong with the research. They should have never gone out there. Curtis creates a new directory, "ENEMIES," and moves all of Sam Holt's information over.

 

Curtis waits for Adam to come out of his office, and tells him he's sorry how sorry he is about Shiro, what a great loss this is for all of us who knew him. Adam searches Curtis' face in a way that suggests he doesn't understand Curtis' familiarity and is not quite sure if they've ever met. Weird. But he thanks Curtis for his thoughts even though, he says with a heavy voice, he and Shiro had broken up months before the mission. Curtis wonders how he could have missed this - and then he remembers Adam's name wasn't on the guest list the day of the launch. Shiro, sent off to the edge of the Milky Way with nothing but with a broken heart. He gives a staunch nod and later adds Adam's information to the "ENEMIES" directory.

 

Kogane goes off the deep end and is out of the Garrison for good, then completely off the grid. Curtis moves all of his information to archives.

 

 

Out of nowhere, Sam Holt miraculously returns to Earth. Without Shiro. But there's news of him. Shiro, along with three other cadets who'd mysteriously gone missing, and one former cadet who'd been in the weeds, had become some kind of intergalactic space hero with something called Voltron. Of course he would. And something about technology advanced aliens who were bent on conquering the universe and eventually earth.

 

The Garrison starts preparing for the possibility of conflict, but is hesitant about the knowledge of confirmation of aggressive alien life causing a panic. Curtis attaches himself to Sam in the hopes of gaining all the information he can on what Shiro's been doing and where he's been. He wants every detail.  So, he's here for the cause. He's going to have to make a few more directories.

 

It's with this trust that Sam brings Curtis in on an important project. The Garrison is dragging its feet, so he's trying to get a message to Voltron. He's going to need Curtis' help in sending it out. Curtis has access to the technology he needs. His daughter, Sam says with a smile, is the real hacker of the family.

 

But the message isn't encrypted correctly. It's practically not encrypted at all. As it was, it wouldn't just be accessible to its intended recipient, but anyone across galaxies who might be listening. It's such a surprising error that Curtis almost mentions it immediately. Then he stops himself. What a big mistake this would be for someone to make. 

 

Wouldn't it be a shame if Sam Holt did something reckless that got him in trouble?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Shiro's answer to "What did you want to be when you grew up?" Is, obviously, an astronaut.


End file.
